4 ms·

The Teenage App Tycoons

44 points by transmit101 16y ago

wallflower 16y ago
> he's done what many British stars have failed to achieve - he's made it big in America. Good article. Common thread is these teenagers are letting the market decide the value of their work.
mclin 16y ago
Do you think the $100 + a Mac barrier has been a damper on the crowds of would be teenage app developers?
- chris24 16y ago
  Perhaps... especially now with section 3.3.1. The other thing that's always irked me (I'm 16) is that Apple requires registered iPhone developers to be 18 or older in order to agree to the NDA. It's not a huge problem, but it's still another little barrier.
  - gte910h 16y ago
    "Require" is very different than "check". Just tell them you're 18, and don't care. Just don't flaunt it. Or, found a company with the state ($30 in Georgia) and sign up for a corporate account.
- trin_ 16y ago
  i think the 1000€+ "entry fee" in form of a macbook is a much larger damper.
  - muhfuhkuh 16y ago
    Mac Mini, refurbished by PowerMax, 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 120GB HDD, in the library with a lead pipe. Seriously, that $1000 entry fee is halved (or less, depending on the Mini spec you're looking at) to about the price of a netbook. Or, you know, I've heard of people (cough) who run Hackintosh perfectly well and are developing apps without issue. Takes a bit of messing around a bit, but hey, kids usually have a bit of free time for this kinda thing.
credo 16y ago
Good story, but I think many people might miss a key point about the one app-store success described in the story. When the app was first released in the app store "This was a total failure - the reviews dribbled out, hits on the website were meagre, and it seemed the game might disappear without trace." The app ended up being very successful and getting to the top of the charts because Apple featured the app in "New and noteworthy" and then in "App of the week".
neonfunk 16y ago
"he was ready to submit The Impossible Game ... to the Xbox Indie marketplace ... Unlike Apple's App Store, this outlet has no corporate gatekeeper - the games are reviewed and rated by the community." Is that true -- that there's no editorial control of indie games on the Xbox marketplace (except by the "community")? Edit: impressive!
- chipsy 16y ago
  Yep. The community has a self-moderation system to do stability testing and maturity rating, but otherwise any quality of game may be allowed in. It brings an incongruous look to the XBox UI when one goes to the indie games section and the promotional art changes from lavish illustrations to crude MSPaint-esque icons.
louislouis 16y ago
Great another kid of x years old makes x amount of $ in less than x days story. Where have I read this before. Is there like some kind of book filled with formulas/structures of how articles are to be written where journalists go and be like 'oh this week I'll use this formula and this and this'? Anyway, the article could be spun in many ways. How about 'The Should Be Teenage Tycoons'... The story of how Apple has shafted true innovative app makers into scraping fractions of their apps true worth on the jailbroken market, and how the only real success come when Apple decides to select/feature your app.

44 points by transmit101 16y ago

> he's done what many British stars have failed to achieve - he's made it big in America. Good article. Common thread is these teenagers are letting the market decide the value of their work.

mclin 16y ago

Do you think the $100 + a Mac barrier has been a damper on the crowds of would be teenage app developers?

chris24 16y ago
Perhaps... especially now with section 3.3.1. The other thing that's always irked me (I'm 16) is that Apple requires registered iPhone developers to be 18 or older in order to agree to the NDA. It's not a huge problem, but it's still another little barrier.
- gte910h 16y ago
  "Require" is very different than "check". Just tell them you're 18, and don't care. Just don't flaunt it. Or, found a company with the state ($30 in Georgia) and sign up for a corporate account.
trin_ 16y ago
i think the 1000€+ "entry fee" in form of a macbook is a much larger damper.
- muhfuhkuh 16y ago
  Mac Mini, refurbished by PowerMax, 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 120GB HDD, in the library with a lead pipe. Seriously, that $1000 entry fee is halved (or less, depending on the Mini spec you're looking at) to about the price of a netbook. Or, you know, I've heard of people (cough) who run Hackintosh perfectly well and are developing apps without issue. Takes a bit of messing around a bit, but hey, kids usually have a bit of free time for this kinda thing.

credo 16y ago

Good story, but I think many people might miss a key point about the one app-store success described in the story. When the app was first released in the app store "This was a total failure - the reviews dribbled out, hits on the website were meagre, and it seemed the game might disappear without trace." The app ended up being very successful and getting to the top of the charts because Apple featured the app in "New and noteworthy" and then in "App of the week".

neonfunk 16y ago

"he was ready to submit The Impossible Game ... to the Xbox Indie marketplace ... Unlike Apple's App Store, this outlet has no corporate gatekeeper - the games are reviewed and rated by the community." Is that true -- that there's no editorial control of indie games on the Xbox marketplace (except by the "community")? Edit: impressive!

chipsy 16y ago
Yep. The community has a self-moderation system to do stability testing and maturity rating, but otherwise any quality of game may be allowed in. It brings an incongruous look to the XBox UI when one goes to the indie games section and the promotional art changes from lavish illustrations to crude MSPaint-esque icons.

louislouis 16y ago

Great another kid of x years old makes x amount of $ in less than x days story. Where have I read this before. Is there like some kind of book filled with formulas/structures of how articles are to be written where journalists go and be like 'oh this week I'll use this formula and this and this'? Anyway, the article could be spun in many ways. How about 'The Should Be Teenage Tycoons'... The story of how Apple has shafted true innovative app makers into scraping fractions of their apps true worth on the jailbroken market, and how the only real success come when Apple decides to select/feature your app.